Yukon Mike's Duck Decoys

I've been making working decoys since I was a teenager in the 1980's. I was too cheap to buy plastic one's so I thought I'd try making a few mallards out of firewood. After I made about 6 or so I started hitting garage sales looking for good deals on plastic one's! But I was hooked.

Nowadays I make wooden birds for my own rig or for sale to support my carving habit. I've carved decoys out of all kinds of woods, but have settled on local Yukon poplar as my favorite wood. It cuts beautifully to the knife and is fairly light weight when dried properly. The grain is very tight due to our short growing season. To overcome the problem of needing bigger dimension lumber for oversized decoys I use coastal red cedar from BC - beautiful wood. I do get Sitka spruce from Alaska from time to time, but I never know when some will turn up.

Included is a gallery of some examples of the decoys I've made should anyone be interested in purchasing any. Prices range from $150 US for Buffleheads and up. As I said I make working decoys, and all styles shown are sealed well and weighted properly to be self righting and ride the waves like a decoy should. I welcome the opportunity to make folks a rig with a variety of poses. In my own hunting rig I use Oldsquaw decoys with removable tails made of caribou antler because they are so tough. I've made some King Eiders with thorns made of moose antler.